


Get A Room, or: Three times Magnus and Alec were gratuitously in love and obliviously domestic about it (a memoir by Jace Herondale)

by SquaresAreNotCircles



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Domestic, Fluff, Gen, Isabelle Lightwood is also briefly present, M/M, Sibling Feelings, Slice of Life, alec and magnus are That Couple You Want To Be and it's unexpectedly important to jace, mentioned Jace Wayland/Clary Fray
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:00:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26129935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaresAreNotCircles/pseuds/SquaresAreNotCircles
Summary: “You hear that, Alexander? Our house guest is being a smartass already. I think he would have been just fine if you had left him in the street yesterday.”Alec just smiles a bit, which is not the impassioned defense Jace would have liked to see him give. “Sure,” Alec says. “Jace, do you want some eggs?”
Relationships: Alec Lightwood & Jace Wayland, Magnus Bane & Jace Wayland, Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 18
Kudos: 357





	Get A Room, or: Three times Magnus and Alec were gratuitously in love and obliviously domestic about it (a memoir by Jace Herondale)

**Author's Note:**

> Shadowhunters fic from me in 2020? It's more likely than you think!

By the time Alec and Magnus finally come tumbling out of a portal into the hall of the Institute, they’re fifteen minutes late and they look just a touch disheveled. It’s in the little things ─ Alec’s hair, Magnus’s tie ─ and it’s subtle enough that Jace might not have noticed if he hadn’t already been annoyed at their late arrival, but he is annoyed, so he does notice.

So does Izzy, of course. She grins at Alec and Magnus, almost leering. “What have you two been up to?”

“Nothing,” Alec says, guiltily running a hand over his hair. It exacerbates rather than fixes the problem.

Magnus catches him at it and wordlessly pushes Alec’s hand away to run his own through Alec’s hair. There might be a sprinkle of magic involved, but either way this attempt is a huge improvement. 

While he’s working, Magnus asks Izzy, “What makes you think anything’s been up?” Alec, head bowed to grant Magnus easy access, opens his mouth, but Magnus cuts him off. “Yes dear, I'm aware that was an unfortunate choice of words.”

The corner of Alec’s mouth twitches, but he remains serious. “That’s not what I was going to say. There’s some eyeshadow fallout on your cheek.”

“Oh.” Jace expects Magnus to snap his fingers or ask for the closest mirror, but he does neither, instead tilting his face towards the light.

Alec wets his thumb and very gently, with more care than he takes when handling seraph blades, wipes away the excess eyeshadow. Which he noticed, because he knows about these kinds of things, apparently. If Clary had some blue on her cheek, Jace would assume there’s a new trend in face makeup he is too uncultured to understand.

“Okay,” Jace says, shaking off the unsettling feeling that he could do better as a boyfriend. “Let’s go, finally.”

Magnus, while fixing the collar of Alec’s jacket to whatever standards Magnus has for that, rolls his eyes. He does it facing Alec, but it’s somehow clear that it can’t be directed at him. “If you’re so impatient to get going, you were free to go ahead without us.”

This is technically true. They’re just going out to a bar, nothing out of the ordinary, and it’s New York city, where you can’t throw a stone without getting yelled at because you hit some guy’s cab. But cabs cost money and Jace is lazy, okay, and what’s the point in having a Warlock as a very likely future brother in law if he can’t portal you places? “You’re our ride, Magnus,” he points out, because of all this. It’s a tad less rude than he probably would have been to anyone else only because he knows Alec would be disappointed.

Magnus still exchanges a capital-L Look with Alec, but flicks his wrist to create a new, shimmery portal in the wall next to them. “There you go, sunshine.”

“Thanks.” Jace turns around just before hopping in to offer Magnus a thumbs up, just to be that little bit of an asshole about it after all now that he has what he wants, but Magnus doesn’t even see him. He’s smiling at Alec, who’s taking his hand, presumably to enter the portal together. 

Jace suddenly really hopes Clary is already at the bar and willing to explain her eyeshadow to him.

*

It takes Jace a moment to remember where he is. It really is just a moment, because there’s only one person he knows who would outfit a guest room with a four-poster bed draped with decadent green sheets with gold embroidery. Jace isn’t an expert, but he would bet his stele that his head is resting on real silk encasing an eiderdown pillow.

He rolls out of bed to find his clothes from yesterday washed, neatly folded, and waiting for him on a chair in the corner. He dresses, taking care with his bandaged arm when slipping on his shirt. He retrieves his phone from the nightstand to check on the time and decides that he probably doesn’t have to be too careful about not accidentally slamming any doors, because there’s a good chance his hosts are up already.

He’s proven right when he ventures into the kitchen. He halts in the doorway, taking in the scene.

Both Magnus and Alec have their backs turned to him. Alec is in sweatpants and a T-shirt, standing at the stove and prodding at something that sizzles and smells like it might be eggs and bacon. Magnus is at Alec’s side, wearing a thin bathrobe that sways with every movement.

They’re not talking. They’re not even touching, except for brief moments when Magnus flits past Alec to retrieve an orange from the fruit basket or when Alec playfully bumps his hip into Magnus’s while reaching across him for the salt. It still looks unbearably intimate, like something Jace shouldn’t be seeing, and definitely not while spying on them from behind.

He clears his throat obnoxiously. “Hi.”

Magnus and Alec turn as one, and they’re both smiling, and it’s almost painful how comfortable they look, like they dance around each other this way every morning while preparing food. They probably do.

“Morning,” Alec says, markedly more relaxed than he seems at this time of day when he sleeps at the Institute.

Magnus raises his eyebrows at Jace. Magnus’s makeup isn’t done yet, and his hair is a haphazard black nest with blue streaks on his head. “Good morning, my boyfriend’s parabatai who has now crashed here more often than some of my own closest friends that I’ve known for centuries. Did you sleep well?”

Alec nudges Magnus’s arm for that, but Jace isn’t offended, because it’s kind of deserved.

“Yeah, it was fine,” he says. “I should say thanks, so, thanks.” He sits down at the kitchen table. It’s awkward standing around and there are three places set, so he doesn’t feel too bold assuming one must be meant for him.

Magnus’s expression softens a bit. “You’re welcome.” He takes the jug of fresh orange juice it seems he pressed by hand, judging by the wrung-out orange halves on the counter – Alec is a bad influence, clearly – and sashays over to the table, sitting down across from Jace. While he fills a glass he gestures at Jace’s arm with his free hand. “You should let me take a look at that after breakfast. The bandage probably needs changing.”

Jace looks down at his own arm. It’s wrapped up from shoulder to elbow, but it hurts far less than he expected it to, after being stupid enough to let himself get bitten by a poisonous demon. He probably has a combination of Alec’s healing runes and Magnus’s spells to thank for that. “You don’t have to,” he tells Magnus. “I can do it myself.”

Magnus spreads his hands dramatically. “Remind me which one of us has magic and eight hundred years of experience using it to work injuries just like that one?”

“You want me to actually answer that, or is it a rhetorical question designed to stroke your ego?”

Alec shuts off the stove and comes over to the table with a coaster for the hot pan he’s bringing with him. Magnus turns to him. “You hear that, Alexander? Our house guest is being a smartass already. I think he would have been just fine if you had left him in the street yesterday.”

Alec just smiles a bit, which is not the impassioned defense Jace would have liked to see him give. “Sure,” Alec says. “Jace, do you want some eggs?”

Jace holds his plate close and Alec pushes a very generous third of the contents of the pan onto it. He was working on eggs and bacon, like the smell led Jace to believe, and Jace’s mouth is watering, but he doesn’t dig in immediately. He sets his plate down and lets it be for a moment. “You could’ve just dropped me off at home,” he points out.

Alec gets that pinched expression he reserves for when he thinks someone in his family is not putting their own best interests first, despite the fact that he would behave the exact same way in Jace’s position. Alec is the biggest hypocrite sometimes. He puts down the pan with a little too much force and takes a seat. “No, we couldn’t. You had blacked out and it made no sense to take you all the way to the Institute when the loft was closer and we’d be able to take better care of you here.”

“But now I’m intruding on your Saturday morning.”

Magnus jumps in, archly. “You never worried about that when you stayed here after showing up on my doorstep unannounced with your bags.”

He’s right, but Jace can’t very well say that it’s because back then he still assumed he was just taking advantage of Alec’s current hookup happening to have a huge number of empty rooms. He’s pretty sure Alec wouldn’t be thrilled if he knew Jace absolutely would have bet against them lasting longer than a month when Magnus first entered their lives. “Well,” he says instead, “clearly I’ve grown as a person.”

Magnus, who he had that awkward failed shovel talk with about whirlwind flings and next levels while being assaulted by cats, shoots him a look that says he sees right through him. Alec just outright laughs.

The strangest thing about it is that Jace has to fight a smile, too.

*

Alec opens the door almost before Jace is finished knocking. “Hey,” Alec says. “Let me just grab my jacket.”

Jace nods at him. “Sure.”

Alec takes a couple of steps back into the loft to fetch his leather jacket from the hall closet. He’s wearing his boots, his stele and a blade are tucked into his belt and Jace is certain his bow and quiver are slung over his shoulder, even if they’re invisible for the time being. He looks ready to go, and Jace approves.

But then Alec turns back around and almost runs straight into Jace, who’s still standing in the doorway. Jace approves a little less of that. He frowns up at Alec. “Did you have a fight with Magnus?”

“What?” Alec asks, frowning right back. Jace is more relieved by Alec’s genuine confusion than he hopes he lets on. “No. Why?”

This is where it gets a bit awkward for Jace. He crosses his arms, shrugs, and hopes his bluster is enough to cover up his embarrassment. “Then why aren’t you kissing him goodbye?”

Alec appears baffled, and to make matters worse, that’s when Magnus wanders into frame from the left, where the kitchen is. He’s cradling a hot pink coffee mug and is wearing a different fluttery robe, but his hair and makeup are already done, so there’s no natural face to soften any of his pointed expressions. It seems he’s been listening in, which doesn’t help with Jace’s embarrassment.

“While I’m touched by your concern for how often your brother is kissing me,” Magnus informs him over the rim of the mug, “I do also feel the need to inquire where it’s coming from.”

“I’m not concerned,” Jace says, doing his very best not to sound like he is. It’s not technically a lie – he may have been just a touch perturbed a minute ago, but it’s gone now that it’s apparent he was wrong.

Magnus moves closer to the door so that he’s standing just behind Alec’s shoulder. He doesn’t let Jace off that easily. “Are you sure? You sounded pretty invested.”

“Yeah. Well, I care about you.”

“Not that much.” It doesn’t even sound like Magnus actually believes that, but it’s a very effective way to keep needling Jace.

Jace jams his hands in his jeans pockets. He’s mostly given up on not trying to seem defensive. “Listen, just forget that I ever said anything.”

Alec is studying him now, which is worse than Magnus doing it. Magnus and Jace haven’t always seen eye to eye, so he’s gotten considering looks from him before, and he’s not too worried about what Magnus could read on his face. Alec, on the other hand, has known him longer than pretty much anybody else in his life and can literally sense his emotions. He braces for what might be coming.

But Alec isn’t Izzy or Magnus or Clary. He’s Alec, so he just shrugs and says, “Okay.”

Jace is pretty sure the face he’s pulling is unhappy. Partly because he knows Alec is letting him get away with something here, but mostly because Alec’s easy surrender makes him realize that he’d been hoping he would be forced to explain himself further, because then he wouldn’t have to be the one to talk about his feelings of his own accord. He’d still get to voice them out loud after having them dragged out of him, giving him the satisfaction of airing them but also plausible deniability about wanting it.

But Alec is not playing that game, so Jace flounders for a moment, disappointed and conflicted and guilty and wondering when Alec became something close to emotionally intelligent, before finally surrendering. He huffs. He hopes it sounds gruff and annoyed instead of like a cover for having to swallow hard. “It’s because you’re basically the gold standard of what a healthy adult relationship should look like, alright? And I don’t want to watch that fall apart, because it’s important to you.”

“Ah, and because it’s important to _you_ ,” Magnus says, in a way that doesn’t make it sound even a little bit like a question. He points a perfectly manicured fingernail in Jace’s direction for good measure.

“Maybe,” Jace admits, because why not.

Then again, maybe Alec’s strategy to get Jace to talk wasn’t as deliberate as Jace was giving him credit for. “What?” Alec asks, completely dumbfounded. Jace could knock Alec over with a pinkie finger right now, and the only reason Alec wouldn’t drop straight to the ground is that Magnus would be there to catch him when he falls. 

Jace resists the temptation to look at anything except Alec. He’s fought a genocidal maniac who tortured him and who he thought was his father, dammit, so he can look at his brother who he loves while talking about feelingsy stuff. “I haven’t exactly had a lot of good role models in that regard. Maryse and Robert came closest, and look how screwed up that turned out to be.”

Alec’s jaw is still slack. “I’m a role model?” 

“With the way you’re catching flies right now, only to frogs.” As far as witty repartees go, it doesn’t quite hit the mark, but it allows Magnus to rejoin the conversation, mercifully lowering the levels of awkward by a few degrees.

“Frogs,” Magnus repeats. “Charming as always, Jace.”

“That’s why people love me,” Jace quips back, and the interaction finally settles into something resembling normal. Even Alec seems to have gotten over the initial shock. It morphed into just a hint of smugness, and Jace likes it for Alec but not for what it means regarding future awkward conversations, so he strives to get them back on track once and for all. “Ready, or are we going to spend our entire shift standing around looking pretty?”

“I've been ready,” Alec says, because he's far past being that awkward teen who gets flustered and a little defensive over everything that comes close to a compliment.

Magnus follows Alec to the doorswell, where he remains with one hand on the jamb and one hand holding his robe shut, like the hallway is any colder than the apartment. “I’ll have dinner ready when you get back, darling.” Jace is not surprised by this, but he is, a little bit, when Magnus looks past Alec and adds, “Do you and Biscuit want to join us? We’re having Chinese.”

Jace blinks. “I’ll ask her.”

Alec looks from Jace back to Magnus. “Then I’ll ask Izzy so she doesn’t feel excluded.”

His matter of factness helps Jace regain his equilibrium. “That means Simon’s coming too. You should put out six plates.”

“It’s a family dinner,” Magnus says. There’s something in the way he says it, something just a little too light, that makes Jace think this wasn’t orchestrated solely for his benefit. Maybe he’s not the only one who’s still surprised sometimes when he looks around and finds himself surrounded by people who love him unconditionally and just the way he is.

“Sounds good.” Alec, by contrast, doesn’t look one bit unsure at the idea of family, but then he and Izzy have always been the ones showing Jace how actually loving someone works, even way before Alec started dating Magnus and added an example of romantic love too. Jace suddenly wants the two of them to adopt a dozen little babies. Those kids would grow up so loved and happy.

He doesn’t say that. If he saves it, he can probably turn the tables when Alec inevitably tries to bring up the role model thing again. “Let’s go.”

This time, it’s Alec who says, “Wait, one second.” 

Jace opens his mouth to ask what’s holding them up now, but Alec’s long legs have already taken him back to the door and to Magnus. The kiss Alec goes in for is just a peck. It’s perfectly innocent but lingers just a bit, and when Alec withdraws, Magnus’s hand brushes his cheek. Not like he can’t let go, but like he marvels at getting to touch something so precious. “I’ll see you tonight, Mr. Lightwood.”

Alec grins his dopey Magnus grin. “Count on it, Mr. Bane.” A last mutual soft look and then Alec abruptly turns on his heel, seems to grow yet another inch taller and strides past before Jace can comprehend the shift in objectives. Alec looks pretty satisfied with both life in general and this specific moment when he has to call over his shoulder. “Jace, are you coming?”

Jace looks at Magnus with his fluttery robe in the door opening, standing there like a smug boyfriend. “Already there,” Jace lies, and chases after Alec, not really bothering to hide his own grin.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! Comments are received with great joy. ❤
> 
> Should you want to find me on Tumblr, I'm [itwoodbeprefect](http://itwoodbeprefect.tumblr.com/)!


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